Canon Fodder

CHAPTER 299 LET IT HAPPEN

“Are you trying?” I asked for the 3rd time. 

“I am,” the boy whined. He was currently a 3 foot long pink dragon that looked like a very tiny Shenron from DBZ. “I don’t know how to turn back.” 

“Momonosuke, you ate a devil fruit. There are going to be complications,” I said, sitting next to him. Our relationship had gotten better after I started letting him watch what I could remember of Demon Slayer. “What did it feel like when you turned into the pink snake?”

“I’m a dragon,” he hissed. 

“Whatever. Something in your mind has to be making the change. How did you turn into the dragon?” He had supposedly eaten one of the man-made copies of a Dragon Devil Fruit. Vegapunk had made it and left it in the basement where they were keeping the kids on Punk Hazard. Momonosuke had been smart to not eat the drug-laced food the other kids were, but he had become so hungry he ate a devil fruit. 

“I sneezed,” he whined. 

“Okay, that’s good,” I said. “Sneezing, that’s something leaving your body. Maybe you inadvertently made your power come out with your snot. So let’s try breathing in. Draw that power back in.” I picked him up and sat the unruly snake-like body on my lip. Breathing in and out loudly through my nose I waited for him to join me. “Breath in and out dammit or no show.” 

“Fine,” he grumbled. Breathing in and out slowly. 

“In through the nose. Out through the mouth. Nice and slow,” I mumbled. Sitting on the deck we let the wind blowing and other noises of the crew take all sound as we relaxed. Stroking his head I continued to have him breath. Then without warning his body shifted to that of a small boy. Peeking I noticed that he was asleep. 

“You’re good with kids,” Nami said. Watching me from the railing she rested her chin on her fist as she eavesdropped. 

“Kids this age are easy. Before they can walk is when I have trouble,” I said. Picking up Momonosuke I set him on the grass. The boy continued to sleep. Being unable to control his devil fruit had worn him out. 

It had been a few days since I came back to One Piece. I felt better about my loss, but it was still a shadow over me that I had to push away to ignore. I had done my best but made a mistake. A mistake I was lucky enough to get a chance to never make again. 

The girls continued to practice their chakra elements. Both already on the 2nd or 3rd stage they were excited to work with elements. My clone that went to Hancock ended himself that morning. She too had freaked out when I disappeared from her senses. After calming her down by training her a little in her chakra element, which was Earth, she was finally better. She had demanded the clone stick around a couple of extra days to keep her company. Though he couldn’t have sex she still preferred my clone over nothing at all. 

“How many kids you want?” I asked Nami out of the blue.

“What?” She asked, jerking up as she came to attention. Looking around she blushed a little. 

“You know, if you were to find someone so inclined to provide you with some,” I said. 

“Hmm those are rare to find,” she said. “Probably 2.” 

“What about you Robin?” I asked. 

“No idea,” she said, focusing. She had her hands hovering over the grass. An arm came out of the ground but she cursed and made it turn into flower petals. 

“What are you doing?” I asked. 

“Trying to make a limb with Nen and my devil fruit. They aren’t mixing very easily,” she said. 

“What do they feel like?” I asked, curious. 

“My Nen feels almost physical,” she said. Sticking out her hand I used Gyo to watch Nen cover her palm. “My devil fruit is more….just there. I think of a limb appearing and it does.” 

“Let’s focus on your Nen. You should be able to focus on one-” I stopped as Nibi landed on my head. Luffy soon dropped from the mast on top of me. The tailed beast jumped away just in time causing me to take the brunt of the hit. 

“Stupid cat! Let me pet you!” Luffy yelled, running after it. Momonosuke somehow slept through the commotion. I had been bringing Nibi out to all the worlds, and she was a big hit with most everyone. The unique black and blue fire cat typically hanging around she never seemed to mind appearing or disappearing for long periods of time. 

“Watch yourself, Luffy. She will set you on fire,” I warned.

“Already did,” he said but he was chasing after her down below deck. 

“Where do you find these weird creatures?” Nami asked. 

“I don’t know. Luffy found me,” I said. She rolled her eyes but laughed. “Robin, let's focus on making something with your Nen first. Since you can transmute your lifeforce, you should be able to form anything you want. It might work like Genjutsu. Maybe it would be easier to practice with chakra…” And we continued to experiment. Eventually it was time though. 

Trafalgar called the meeting this time. Nami succeeded in making a shadow clone so the clone was driving us. The Straw Hats sitting around the large dining room table Trafalgar stood in front of us with a large poster like a businessman giving a presentation. 

“This is Dressrosa,” he said. 

“Looks like a donut,” Luffy said. 

“It’s not. The middle is the palace.”

“So it’s not a giant donut?” He grumbled. 

“No,” Trafalgar said, gripping his pointer stick, already sick of the meeting. He pointed back to the map. At the center was a donut shaped island. To the north was a green island. “Dressrosa has jagged rocks surrounding most of the coast. There is 1 dock here on the South side. So we will have to be discrete and not take the Sunny to the island. To the North is an island they call Green Bit. There is a bridge connecting the 2 islands.” 

“Will there be a quiz on this information after the presentation?” I asked. 

“Weston, please,” Trafalgar said, holding in his patience as best he could. The man had dark circles under his eyes, making me feel bad. 

“Sorry.”

“Moving on,” Trafalgar said. “Donquixote Doflamingo is the captain of the Donquixote pirates. He became the king of Dressrosa 10 years ago. After deposing the king, the people were happy to have him. But he is far from a good guy. My plan is to split up into 3 groups. 1 main group to go to the main island. Infiltrate, find and destroy the Smile Factory to eliminate Kaidou’s supply of devil fruits. Another team would go with me to Green Bit. The newspaper said he abdicated the Dressrosa throne, and his position as a Shichibukai, so we will stick to the plan for now. Then we will give him back Caesar. My plan is to do the exchange on the bridge connecting the 2 islands in a couple of days.” 

“Why exactly did we want him to give up being a Shichibukai?” Nami asked. 

“If you attack a Shichibukai you are attacking the government themselves. Also since he is the king of Dressrosa I was hoping it would cause some chaos on the island. Making finding the Smile factory easier.” Nami nodded and he moved on. “The last team I would like to go to Zou.”

“What’s Zou?” Franky asked. 

“Zou is a moving island close to here. My crewmates are there now,” Trafalgar said. “If something happens to us. I think that some of us, and my crew, should be left free so they can try to save us.” 

“We don’t really do backup plans,” I said. “It’s usually all or nothing.”

“I understand,” Trafalgar said. “But I have been working on this plan for almost 2 years. I don’t want any mistakes. If things don’t work well with exchanging Caesar. It could take days to find the Smile Factory. Perhaps the team and my crewmates will be back here in time to help with the attack.” 

“Cool,” Luffy said. He wasn’t paying attention to the presentation though. He was looking into the live well, watching an octopus and crab fight. The conversation hit a lull. 

“Anything else?” I asked, confused. 

“That’s all I had,” Trafalgar admitted.

“Goddang it,” I said. Scooting out of the bench seat I moved to Trafalgar’s spot. Shooing him away. “Okay 2 main things I know about that we have to watch out for. Number 1: Doflamingo himself. He was a Tenryuubito once but his dad grew a conscience or something and gave it up. He is super strong too. From what I know he ate the String Devil Fruit. He can make super tiny strings. Uses them to fly around, attack with, even make clones of himself like I do.”

Chopper raised his hand. “Is he a ninja too?” 

“No, he’s not so lucky,” I said. “Number 2: and honestly the scariest thing about this fight in my eyes, is one of his subordinates. Her name is like Candy or Chocolate or something?” 

“Sugar?” Trafalgar asked, confused. “Monet’s sister?” 

“Monet? That green haired bird girl back at Punk Hazard?” I asked. Trafalgar nodded. “Must be. Sugar looks like a little girl, but she is older than she looks. She has some kind of Doll Devil Fruit. If she touches you she turns you into a doll.” 

“What kind of doll?” Luffy asked, turning around. 

“Not the fun kind,” I said. “You can still move, talk, and think. Unfortunately if you are turned into a doll, everyone you know forgets who you are.”

“What?” Sanji asked, perking up. “How?”

“No idea. But it happens. Dressrosa will have hundreds of toys walking around. These are real people. So be nice to them.” I pulled out a stack of paper and began writing names on it. “These are the names of everyone here in this room. Before we disembark you will have a paper listing everyone. If you are approached by a doll. Read this list. If you don’t recognize one of the names. That means you have forgotten them, and they are probably the doll talking to you. Just assume they will help you and leave them alone. Taking down Sugar and Doflamingo should be paramount in our goals. There is no leaving the island if you forget any of these names.” 

The crew slowly nodded. Worried as I tried to express how important this was. I had forgotten I left the One Piece world in the first place because I didn’t want to go to a Challenge as a doll. Now I was stuck here until I got my Haki back. 

“Anything else we need to worry about?” Nami asked. 

Unfortunately I couldn’t remember. It had been years since I read the arc. “I don’t know. There might be a tournament going on. Doflamingo will try to double cross us of course. So we will just have to triple cross him.” 

“Great,” Nami whispered. 

“I have a request,” Kinemon said, raising his hand. The samurai looked rather funny doing so, but I pointed at him. “We were on Dressrosa some time ago. Momonosuke was taken to Punk Hazard from there. We were being attacked by the Donquixote pirates. My friend Kanjuro held the pirates off while I chased after Momonosuke. I would like to try to see if Kanjuro is alive.” 

I squinted my eyes. Trying to remember the name Kanjuro. I knew one of Kinemon's friends betrayed him, but I couldn’t remember the name. 

“I don’t see why not. We can look for him while trying to find the Smile Factory,” I said. “Anything else? Alright, time to split up the groups. We gonna do the whole dodgeball team picking thing, or just volunteers?” 

“What?” Trafalgar asked. 

“Nevermind. I want to go to the island and destroy the factory,” I said. We started taking volunteers and making the teams from there. All in all I was excited to start. That’s when I received the quest. 

“Perfect, you know me so well,” I said to whoever made the quests. I wanted everything.